"I am the Good Shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me - just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father - and I lay down My life for the sheep."
This passage comes from John 10, which is the culmination of three amazing chapters where Jesus affirms His deity. He stands up to the Jews who picked up stones to kill him, asking which miracle He performed are they stoning Him for. They answer that they're going to kill Him for blasphemy - for making Himself out to be God. He tries to reason with them, holding up His miracles as a sign that affirms His deity, but they don't buy it and he escapes their grasp. I wonder if He used miraculous powers to escape, or if He just boldly walked briskly away, or if He ran. The passage doesn't really tell us.
I am a bad shepherd. Besides being selfish and apparently unwilling to lay down my life for the sheep, I made a mistake recently in HM Magazine that I regret. I allowed an ad by a record company to run in our last issue (after discussing the issue with the label), which featured a band of Christians and a "secular" band. Some people checked out the band and saw that they used profanity on their website. Others went out and bought their record, hearing profanity when they played it. It's not too likely that much damage was done by people hearing this secular band, although there was some slight damage I imagine. The worst damage is that the trust that some readers have of HM was damaged. If I compromised this one time, how are they to know that future ads for bands they don't know are Christian bands. However your philosophy falls on the topic of listening to secular music goes, it's still true that HM Magazine acts as a filter of sorts for its readers, letting people know about distinctly Christian bands that are making music out there. If that "filter" doesn't stay consistent, then it doesn't do its job.
The great thing about being a follower of the Great Shepherd, though, is we can get back up after we trip and fall, be forgiven, and move on. By His power and grace, we can avoid the mistakes we made in the past. That's my goal.
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at November 11, 2004 08:14 AM